I. Field
The subject specification relates generally to wireless communication and, more particularly, to scheduling system information associated with the technology utilized for communication.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting simultaneous communication of multiple terminals with one or more base stations. Multiple-access communication relies on sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Communication between a terminal in a wireless system (e.g., a multiple-access system) and a base station is effected through transmissions over a wireless link comprised of a forward link and a reverse link. Such communication link may be established via a single-input-single-output (SISO), multiple-input-single-output (MISO), or a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system. A MIMO system consists of transmitter(s) and receiver(s) equipped, respectively, with multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. SISO and MISO systems are particular instances of a MIMO system. A MIMO channel formed by NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NV independent channels, which are also referred to as spatial channels, where NV≦min{NT,NR}. Each of the NV independent channels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., higher throughput, greater capacity, or improved reliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.
Regardless the peculiarities of the multiple available wireless communication systems, in each of such systems, operation of a wireless device relies upon successfully receiving system information. Typically, such system information is received in the device according to scheduling mechanisms adopted by a scheduler that operates in a serving base station. Generally, the efficiency of the wireless device operation depends to a significant extent on the scheduling mechanisms of system information. For example, battery utilization can be substantially deteriorated when a scheduling mechanism involves unnecessary utilization of transceiver and associated components. Such a scenario typically arises when a transceiver in a mobile station actively “listens” to a channel without receiving information that furthers equipment operation, such as updated or new, system information. Accordingly, a need exists in the art for efficient scheduling mechanism(s) that reduces unnecessary utilization of transceiver and associated components of a wireless device operating in wireless environment.